At dinner this past weekend, a comment was made about text messaging: it’s going away. I was quick to guff at the statement. My rebuttal was equally quick and overly confidant: it’s not going anywhere, but then I interjected one caveat – the role it presently plays within our personal, professional, physical and virtual lives will no doubt change.

Like many technologies and behaviors, the act of texting has quickly integrated into our society, for better or for worse. For the better, I am able to text someone in a pinch to offer a specific bit of information without an hour long conversation. For the worse, cell phone and text related accidents are up as folks fail to recognize the dangers of texting and driving.

But I’m convinced that this is only the start, the role it plays in our lives will undoubtedly change, and we may never even realize it. It will morph as not only technologies change, but people change. Its purpose will stem beyond simple, instantaneous communication. There will, as there has already been, an increased intentionally, as well as the construction of boundaries.

Boundaries is a much larger discussion, but for now, I personally am starting to switch to an almost retaliatory state. I don’t always want to be pinged by political campaigns and multiple Twitter accounts. I want content when I want it, not always when someone else wants me to have it. Who’s in control, and what role do they want this mobility driven, or taken, content to play?

Again, this is a much larger debate, but for now text messaging will not go away, it will change, and we will see it redefined as technologies, people and whole societies, and subcultures, change. The question then that remains is do you prepare for that change, drive it or ignore it?